Recent plein air work and a beach trip...

 Yamhill Evening Colour (8x10)

Been having great weather so far this summer! Found a new area to explore in Yamhill county, about 30 miles west of our place with plenty of hidden valleys and mostly oak covered hills (which is a nice change from the pine trees) ....and kind of looks like northern California...

 Nestucca Moonrise (6x8)

This was a last minute quickie as the light was going fast on my way back to the beach house. There was a new observation deck built overlooking a nature preserve in the Nestucca Valley about a quarter mile in from the beach facing east...

 Arcadia Monolith (12x16) oil on linen

This was done at Arcadia Beach, a nice spot just south of the town of Cannon Beach. The base of the bluff is to the right, but I wanted to focus on the interesting shape and size of the large vertical rock formation...

Painting on the beach at minus tide...

Was able to actually drive south down the beach (just north of Pacific City) for about half a mile...painted these rocks during a very low tide, but the terrain was very flat so the tide could rise quickly...kept the keys in the ignition just in case, and it wouldn't have made for a bad Subaru commercial either!

Thankful again to visit the lonely Oregon coast -- a wonderful place to paint and recharge...

Landscape Variables:

 "Harmony in Silver" (12x16) oil on linen

This piece was painted in Spring near our home in Oregon just before a late afternoon rain storm hit (from behind me). Some of the best 'sky-drama' is right after or right before a storm; clouds are moving, colour is changing -- the design of the sky can determine your entire composition, and often become the focal point of it...I packed up and ran to the car just in time!

 "Sonoma Sunrise" (6x8) oil on panel

This little sketch was painted at dawn (and sold) during the Sonoma Plein Air show in California last October. I knew from the previous morning where the sun would hit first, so I was already set up before light. The intense blue is due to the moisture in the valley and made for a stark contrast of temperature as the sun hit the hilltop -- a very fast, but rewarding execution that I would never have captured with the same spontaneity from a photograph...

"Oak Cluster" (9x12) oil on canvas

This one was done on my way home from the beach in Oregon wine country (not sure what town it was closest to). Early in the evening, I was fortunate to find a spot to pull off the road where usually there is none (as local farmers like to plow every square foot of soil). This was last summer when the sun was low and colour was most intense. Setting sunlight on a subject can make for a more interesting composition with long-stretching shadow patterns like these...